IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack Review: Vijay Verma, Arvind Swami and Naseeruddin Shah deliver a compelling hijack drama

There have been many films/ series in Bollywood which have been made on aircrafts drama like hijacking others. Barring a few like Sonam Kapoor starrer Neerja, rest of the films were born out of script writer’s super creative minds. This week’s release IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack (6-part series), in a nutshell, is a recreation of an incident which had not just shook India in the year 1999, but also the world, which, eventually led to some important decisions taken thereafter.

The 6-part series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, which is an adaption from the book Flight Into Fear by Captain Devi Sharan, starts off with Captain Sharan (Vijay Varma) stepping out of the plane to call up his children and wife to inform them that the flight was delayed. At that time, he also tells a candid statement that he was not supposed to travel (read ‘fly’) in the said flight. Since it was the last Christmas Eve of the millennium (remember the famous Y2K time!), he was super excited to spend time with his family.

Some of the prominent passengers who were on board include a newlywed couple on their honeymoon, a foreign traveller, an extremely concerned man who has slogged all his life for his family and had made investments in the form of FDs and shares, a differently abled child with his parents, an asthmatic patient man who did not carry an extra inhaler thinking that it was just a one-hour flight and others.

Not the one to beat around the bush to tell the story, director Anurag Sinha makes no mistakes and starts the hijacking drama within the first few minutes of the series. What follows after this is pure and sheer drama that is simply made of gold. Right from the manner in which the hijackers effortlessly transport the RDX loaded bag into the flight to the various challenges faced while crash landing the flight at different locations to the political tensions that prevail to almost everything… the series has it all.

Also Read: IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack- 5 reasons to watch the Vijay Varma, Patralekhaa hijack drama 

For those who are not aware of the real motive behind the hijacking, the series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack serves as a ‘magnetically compelling’ visual medium to educate you. The motive behind the hijacking of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack was to secure the release of Islamist terrorists who had been imprisoned by the Indian authorities. These terrorists included Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.

The entire series of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack revolves and rotates around the seven fateful days and the ordeals faced by not just the passengers, but also by Captain Sharan and the flight attendants Indrani (Patralekhaa), Chhaya, Flight Steward Arun Kapoor, Nangia and others. Does the Indian government yield in to the demand of the hijackers, do the hijackers let go off the passengers without any harm and what happens to the flight IC 814 and the hijackers is what forms the rest of the series.

First things first. A huge pat on the back for director Anubhav Sinha to have not just chosen such a hard-hitting topic to be made into a series, but also executed it with almost near-zero flaw. The manner in which he has showed attention to detail (the tea kettle in Kandhahar had its name written in Arabic to the dreaded terrorist telling the jailor that he gets served better tea whenever he visits him… the list is endless).

Anubhav Sinha, who is best known for his no-nonsense style of filmmaking (his past films stand as a testimony to this), continues to keep the flag of this legacy flying high with IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. Given the particular topic, any director would have felt the itch to add a bit of ‘masala’ to make it more interesting. What is commendable about Anubhav Sinha’s is that he survived the urge to itch and chose to present history in its raw form!

Also Read: IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack trailer - Vijay Varma impresses as flight captain; Arvind Swamy and Pankaj Kapur reunite after Roja

For a series like this, where script is the undisputed king, there are hardly any places where one can find any flaw. Even if at all there is / are any flaw/s, the series covers it in totality.

Now for the performances. Even though Vijay Varma is the captain (quite literally) of the ship… we mean... the flight, the series is not at all a one-man show. its kind of hard to pin point at a particular actor to be called as the hero of the series, because, in the case of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack it’s the script that is the (undisputed) hero.

Besides Vijay Varma, the series also has stellar actors like Arvind Swami, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Patralekhaa, Dia Mirza, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Anupam Tripathi, Amrita Puri, Kanwaljeet Singh, Dibyendu Bhattacharya or even the ones with lesser screentime, everyone has contributed immensely towards making this series a compelling watch!

In a series like this which treads on hard hitting topic from the pages of history, music plays an extremely important role. The duo of Alex Lamy and Richard Harvey have done total justice in this department. Ditto and more for Ewan Mulligan and Ravi Kiran Ayyagari, the two names behind the spectacular cinematography that the series has, and also Amarjit Singh for the watertight editing which ups the pleasure of watching the series by nitches!

Overall, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is a must watch. Do not miss this recreated piece of history for anything in the world!

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